In a time of rapid change, how
can scientists adapt to and even benefit from changing
priorities? What risks getting lost when policymakers shift
their focus to commercial applications for science? How do
we measure non-economic
benefits?

Scientists and
decision-makers met this week to grapple with tough
questions about the value of science in New Zealand at the
annual NZAS conference.

The
forum provides an opportunity for leaders and high-profile
scientists at different stages of their career to engage on
significant issues, and provide a gauge of opinion from the
wider scientific community.

Audio from many of
the speakers is available on the Science Media Centre website.

The science
sector has been through several major overhauls in recent
years, and now the last major stone unturned is the science
funding system, and it needs to be looked at, according to
Chief Science Adviser Professor Sir Peter
Gluckman.

But to discuss funding is to complain, and
we shouldn't labour the point, quipped Prof Richard Easther
in his brief talk on Why we do science, asking "When
have scientists anywhere complained of having more money
than they know what to do with?"

Continuing on the
topic of funding, Prof Christine Winterbourn spoke of having
to hide fundamental science behind descriptions of potential
applications, and questioned the current focus on commercial
endpoints for research.

Another highlight included Dr
David Winter discussing the wider dissemination of science.
Scientists should speak up when confronted with nonsense in
the media, he said , drawing on his own experiences of the
media circus surrounding Ken Ring's earthquake
predictions.

A sizeable number of social media -savvy
scientists at the conference took to twitter to spread the
key messages out to the wider public during the conference.
The SMC's highlights from live tweets from the event are now
available on Storify

Bird flu
in China closely
monitored

A new bird
'flu variant in China has claimed five lives, but an
apparent lack of human-to-human transmission means the risk
of a pandemic is
"unlikely".

The virus, which
causes fever and respiratory problems, including severe
pneumonia, was first detected in humans in early March and
the first three cases confirmed by the Chinese
authorities on the 31st of March.

To date, the
total number of confirmed cases of human infection with
influenza A(H7N9) virus recorded by the World Health
Organization (WHO) in China is 11, including five deaths.
Non-confirmed cases based on Chinese media reports put the
number of infections as high as 14.

As the
Chinese government ramps up its surveillance efforts further
cases maybe identified retrospectively through testing
samples from previously reported cases with severe
respiratory infection.

Although information is
limited, experts expect that the infections originated from
poultry. The animal health sector has intensified
investigations into the possible sources and reservoirs of
the virus.

Fortunately, the WHO has so far found no
evidence of ongoing human-to-human transmission.

Ex-pat Kiwi Prof Richard Webby, director of a WHO flu
centre in Tennessee, USA, downplayed pandemic potential of
the virus when speaking to AP.

"At this
stage it's still unlikely to become a pandemic," he said.
"We should be concerned (but) there's no alarm bells ringing
yet."

The Australian Science Media Centre
collected rapid reaction commentary from experts on the
unfolding situation in China.

"At the
moment it's very hard to have any real idea of what is
happening but the reports are certainly concerning. There is
a virus out there which, like the H5N1 strain, appears to be
causing serious illness, but how widespread that illness is
at this very early stage, we don't know. We don't know
whether we're seeing the tip of the iceberg or whether we're
actually seeing most of the existing cases presenting as
severe infection. If it's the latter then it's a concern.

You can read more expert commentary collected
by the UK and Australian SMCs here.

Included in the paper are
clear explanations of 'how science works', scientific
consensus and debate, how to deal with uncertainty and the
classic confusion of correlation vs. causation.

In
his preface to the paper, Sir Peter explains: "too often a
piece of science is misunderstood, misused or overstated -
sometimes something is presented as established science when
it is not, other times it does not suit advocates to accept
the science as established when it is."

Importantly
the paper also covers what science can't do. All too
frequently, the paper notes, science is used as a stand-in
for arguments that are not actually based on
science.

"Issues are confounded even more when
discussion about complex science becomes a proxy for debate
that is really not about the science but is a debate about
values - we see that in issues such as climate change and
the regulation of 'natural' health
products".

According to the paper, one of the best
antidotes to the misuse of science is increasing public
scientific literacy - and scientists must take the
initiative on this.

"The scientific community has an
obligation to engage more pro-actively with the community,
particularly in ensuring an understanding of new
technologies early in their emergence."

You
can read the full discussion paper here and a press release from Prof
Sir Peter Gluckman here.

Canada
probes muzzling
claims

Canada's federal
information commissioner is to launch an investigation into claims
the Harper government has deliberately moved to stop
scientists from speaking out about publicly-funded
research.

The investigation spans seven government
agencies including the Department of the Environment and the
Department of Natural Resources and is as a result of
complaints lodged by the

Environmental Law Clinic of the
University of Victoria and Democracy Watch.

"The
complaint is alleging that government policies and policy
instruments, including departmental policies, protocols,
guidelines and directives, that are related to
communications and media relations and that restrict or
prohibit government scientists from speaking with or sharing
research with the media and the Canadian public, are
impeding the right of access to information under the Act,"
the information commissioner Suzanne Legault said in a
statement.

Among the alleged instances of muzzling of
scientists identified by the complainants in their 128 page
report to the commissioner is the case of federal fisheries
scientist Kristi Miller, who was

told not to talk to
media about her landmark study, published in the journal
Science, about sharp declines in the famed sockeye
salmon in the Fraser River.

In February, the journal
Nature published an editorial the criticising the
"cumbersome approval process that stalls or prevents
meaningful contact with Canada's publicly funded
scientists".

Quoted:Scoop

"If science is not used and
communicated in a way that is appropriate and with high
integrity and fidelity we risk sailing into dangerous
waters."

- It is with great sadness that the Sciblogs
team learned that contributor John Nixon, an optical
engineer and author of theLight My Fibre blog passed away on
March 19, aged 71. Editor Peter Griffin and the Sciblogs
community extend their condolences to his
family and friends.

Research
highlights

Please
note: hyperlinks point, where possible, to the relevant
abstract or paper.

Seaweed snafu:
A New Zealand researcher has cleared up a 160
year-old mistake which saw one of the country's common
edible seaweeds misclassified. The seaweed, freshly dubbed
Pyropia plicata, is an intertidal red alga and has
been mistaken for another species since 1840. Now, the
separate species has been formally named. Species of the
Pyropia family include karengo, edible seaweeds
traditionally eaten and highly prized by Maori as a taonga
or treasure.

Japanese researchers have shown that brain activity
can be decoded to reveal basic content of dreams during
sleep. Participants' fMRI signals were similar when dreaming
of a scene or viewing a related image while awake. Drawing
on this, the researchers developed a decoding model that,
retrospectively, was able to detect basic categories of the
dreams.

US Researchers have
extracted an ice core from the Peruvian Andes which gives a
year-by-year account of the last 1,800 years of climate in
the tropics. They describe the find as a "Rosetta Stone"
with which to compare other climate histories from Earth's
tropical and subtropical regions over the last two
millennia. The cores provide a new tool for researchers to
study Earth's past climate, and better understand the
climate changes that are happening today.

For an Adelie penguin colony on
Beaufort Island in the Ross Sea, climate change has had some
unexpected benefits. US and NZ researchers have found that
receding ice on the island has lead to increased nesting
habitat and increases in population. Researchers used aerial
and satellite imagery dating back to 1958 to track changes
in ice cover on the island, and compared this with
population changes and temperature records.

Our aim is to promote accurate, evidence-based reporting on science and technology by helping the media work more closely with the scientific community.

The Science Media Centre is New Zealand's only trusted, independent source of information for the media on all issues related to science. Thousands of news stories providing context from and quoting New Zealand researchers have been published as a direct result of our work.

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